Pitsford Reservoir

Sunday afternoon was an unplanned walk around the nature reserve at Pitsford Reservoir. Seven miles around and no lunch - at least we decided no to lug the scope around! The weather consisted of heavy showers and strong winds so not ideal for photography, but having never walked this side of the causeway we gave it a go. It did prove rewarding, we found this Willow Warbler amongst trees on the far shoreline. Moved very quickly though so it proved very hard to capture, this is the best I could get:














A Grey Heron coming in to land:












After the Ruddy Duck cull earlier in the year (an EU wide project to eradicate Ruddy Duck - they are out competing the White-headed Duck) we'd heard the whole area was very quiet for wildlife, so left it a while before our visit. However, still very surprised to see this pair:












Interestingly this Ruddy Duck appears to be sharing some water with a Black-headed variant, White-headed Duck, so no active competition here ...!















Final snap of the walk, is another mystery... body shape suggests Little Grebe but colour, markings, etc. don't appear in any of my fieldguides, so answers on a postcard please!














New birds included a quick on its feet Grey Partridge, the Ducks, the Willow Warbler and a Skylark, which was in a field beyond the reservoir. Easy to hear but nearly impossible to pick out of the dark sky.